Shane Watts

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Watch this area as the Watts family chronicles their life - both at and away from the race. A rare glimpse into the lifestyle of a professional racer.

Previous Issues

Issue 1, Up to April 7, 2006 Our Life, So Far...

Issue 2, week ending April 10, 2006 Our Life, So Far Con't...

Issue 3, April 10-24, 2006 Return of the 1-2-5!

Issue 4, April 25 - May 8, 2006 Mud, Mud and More Mud!

Issue 5, May 9-22, 2006 The Little Engine That Could

Issue 6, May 23-June 2, 2006 The Last Chicken Dance

Issue 7, June 5-19, 2006 Deliverance in Idaho

Issue 8, June 20-July 24 The Loam Down Under

Issue 9, July 25-August 23 Pepto Bismal, Por Favor!

Once again it’s been a month between editions of this Newsletter so I need to apologize for not having got one out sooner. Oh, things have been so hectic here lately!

We last left off with the Watts family doing a bit of “back to nature” stuff while staying at Yellowstone National Park. Again, what a beautiful place, but after nearly a week of being there it was time then to move on back across towards the East coast for my next race, Rd. 6 of the OMA series in Missouri. The drive started out great, rolling through Yellowstone, then down through the Grand Teton’s, and eventually we left the mountainous, lush green country side of western Wyoming and charged on eastbound. The journey quickly turned into a long drag as we clicked off the miles through the dry and parched looking eastern plains of Wyoming and then into Nebraska, where at some stage across that state’s 470 mile portion of our drive we entered green vegetation again, this being corn fields. Lot’s of them, right through to Memphis, Missouri.

It was so hot and humid there. Basically I was entering the race with the plan of being in survival mode, just concentrating on making the finish, due to the extreme conditions and my lack of time on the bike in the recent weeks. You might be saying now that that isn’t a very good attitude for me to have, especially seeing that this is supposed to be my job. Well, unfortunately sometimes circumstances get in the way of me doing the necessary preparation to fight for the victory. Anyway, I’ve got a plan and it’s to focus on being ready to race when the GNCC series starts up again in early September, and then to follow this through with excellent results for my remaining National races of the year, which will be every weekend until November.

Check here to see how the heat during the race treated me.

From the OMA, we headed up to Moline, Illinois to park the rig at Tim Taber’s house (owner of FunMart Cycles) because at 6am the next morning we were jumping on the dirty bird to head south of the border to visit our Mexican friends whilst competing at the 2-day Fun Enduro. It was a late night trying to get all our gear packed, and then a very early morning so there wasn’t much sleep to be had. Our first flight got delayed for a little bit which then made us late for our connection in Chicago. We hustled to the next flight, just making it to the plane, but not to get something to eat. Our guts were rumbling! We landed in Mexico City and met up with our chauffeur (and Four time Fun Enduro winner) Homero Diaz, who was waiting there with Nate Kanney (from the US) and Bartosz Oblucki, the factory Husqvarna rider from Poland. Once we got our bags packed in his van we headed back into the terminal to grab a bite while waiting for the desert king Destry Abbott and his mechanic Johnny to land and make their appearance.

Following four hours of driving we reached our destination of Valle de Bravo, a quaint little town on the beach of a decent sized lake. It’s supposed to be a popular destination for the wealthy of Mexico. Tuesday was spent working on the bikes we were all given to ride, while on Wednesday we had a few media engagements to attend then we went out for a quick fang to test the bikes.

From Left: Homero Diaz (Mexico), Me, Nate Kanney (US), Destry Abbott (US),

Bartosz Oblucki (Poland), and Xevi Puidgemont (Spain).

On Thursday myself, Destry, and Johnny went for a killer trail ride with a few of the locals along some awesome mountain trails and then down to the edge of the lake resort where we set up a neat grass track and shredded it for an hour. We had such a great ride that we decided to do it again the next morning.

Later on Thursday, a few of us went into town for ice cream, where we met some lady from Columbia who was staying at a friend’s house and got invited back to hangout. Why not we all said, so off we went, all the way into this high dollar, mega-exclusive community on the edge of the cliff over looking the lake. This place was unbelievable; 5 levels, heated pool, magnificent architecture,….

Friday’s ride was again great, then we hurriedly got our bikes ready for the tech inspection and overnight impound before riding them into the city square where the start was. Dinner was next, followed by the rider’s meeting at 9pm.

I had a really enjoyable weekend on the bike with two solid days of riding in some very unpredictable conditions. I even got to ride on the same minute as my old mate from Italy, Maurizio Carminati, who used to be on the Farioli KTM team for the World Enduro Championships when I first started going to Europe in 1995. We did our fair sessions of moto’s together back in the old days. Now days, he lives in Mexico so it was great to share a few jokes with him out on the trail.

From left: Me, Eden, Xevi Puidgemont, and Homero Diaz

Click here for my race report.

Monday morning we were up at 6am and packed for the long and arduous trip back to Illinios. We finally got back to the motorhome just after midnight to be greeted by a fridge/freezer full of rotten meat and vegetables. Swell. Somehow the propane circuit that was going to keep the fridge cool got tripped so we returned to a nice little surprise. A couple of days of scrubbing and letting it air out has us back to a sweet smelling fridge and freezer.

From there we hightailed it towards Bismarck, North Dakota where we were going to meet up with our friends from KTMHutt.com and spend two weeks taking care the mountainous stack of business that had piled up for us. Along the way we stopped off in Des Moines, Iowa for a few hours for lunch and a break. I also ended up going pedaling for two hours on this excellent pavement trail along the green belt. Check it out if you’re ever in the area.

We’ve been here nearly 2 weeks now and I definitely don't mind it. Actually I really enjoy it here. Having said that, though, you certainly wouldn’t find me here in winter time due to the bitter cold, but as a summer time destination with the purpose of getting some serious training done during the two month summer break of the GNCC’s, then this place is great. There’s 40 miles of pavement trails and a couple sets of long single track MTB loops through the surrounding hills to pedal on. The very inviting Missouri River is right there for some water sports fun/training such as jet skiing or wakeboarding, and the locals have 3 really neat riding spots to choose from to pound some laps out on.

Unfortunately my days here have been crammed with too much business work and not enough time for 100% quality training but I’m glad to say we are making decent progress with both since landing here. Our online e-store should be fully completed and open for business with the next two weeks, my physical conditioning has improved immensely, and we’re starting to put the finishing touches put on a couple of other major projects we undertook (see "Things to Look Forward To"...). More on those real soon!

Sorry again about the delay.

Thanks for reading!

The Watts'

Thought this was pretty cool!!

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Link of the Week!

How often have you searched the web looking for the perfect gift for your favorite rider, or the right part for your old-school but much loved KTM? How about looking for the latest hard-to-find riding gear? Or, you finally found the right item, but had a hassle with customer service or getting a human to answer some obscure question about "whether this part will work with this bike". If this sounds familiar to you, this is-hands down-the best site for all your needs (and one that I'm very partial to since they have been so absolutely awesome to me and my family)!

Not only do they have some fantastic and unique products-a KTM Bikini for your wife, and wrapping paper for your kid's birthday prezzie, but they have a killer microfiche search engine to find the RIGHT KTM Part. Check it out! I guarantee you will find everything that you're looking for, and more! Plus, you'll be working with great people and supporting a killer company!

Thanks to everyone at KTMHutt for all of their help over the last two weeks, and for everything they have done in the past. Wouldn't be at the races without you!

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Product Highlight

Powersport Grafx preprinted Backgrounds and Graphics for the Extreme Rider!

Check out their website for the latest and coolest graphics to make your bike uniquely yours! They even have rider replica kits, like mine from last year! If you know me, you know that I try to be "conservative", for lack of a better word, with my use of gear, and I can put a set of these on my practice bike and they'll last me half the year-with no problems. Also, they have a patented product called PG Gripz that give you that extra bit of "stick" for the really bumpy rides.

You can order the easy-to-install graphics, or you can take the easy way out, like me, and order new plastics with the graphics already on them!

Check out their site to order online, or give them a ring (800) 673-6764.

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My Favorite Snap...

Do you think that the Brady Bill applies in North Dakota? I doubt that this guy is going to do a record check on you-he'll just throw the gun up on the gun rack, and call it good!

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